A forum of opposition to Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress

It could happen here

On February 27, 1933, less than a month after Hitler was sworn in as a minority chancellor of Germany, the Reichstag building was destroyed by fire. Communists and Nazis accused each other. Hitler called it the beginning of a Communist coup and convinced President Hindenburg to sign a decree for “protection of the citizens and the state” suspending civic freedoms and privacy. That sealed Nazi control of Germany.

An American Reichstag Fire has been on my mind for months, a private worry too alarmist, too extreme to mention in a public forum. After the last few days I no longer think it’s too extreme. No room for complacency.

Waiting for a 21st Century Reichstag Fire

As for my worst case nightmare scenario? Given the reshuffle on the National Security Council and the prominence of white supremacists and neo-nazis in this Administration I can’t help wondering if the ground isn’t being laid for a Reichstag Fire by way of something like Operation Northwoods. In which case, for me to continue to plan to travel to the United States in eight months time would be as unwise as it would have been to plan in February 1933 to travel to Germany in September of that year: it might be survivable, but it would nevertheless be hazardous.

Charlie is a socialist Scot or some such, so we might expect him to be more than normally apprehensive of Donald Trump. But I’m a pretty ordinary California Democrat, and I feel the same way.

I don’t mean that I think we’ll be at war with Mexico later this year, but George Bush used 9/11 as a justification for the PATRIOT Act, ubiquitous surveillance, the resumption of torture, and an insane war in Iraq. But even Bush was smart enough to always make it clear that we were fighting terrorism, not Islam. Trump has no such smarts and no such restraint.

So what will Trump do if there’s another major terrorist attack on US soil? He’s practically begging for one, after all. I don’t know, but I might not want to be a foreigner traveling in the US when it happens either.